Citizen Group Loses Compensation Lawsuit Against Kakao Over 'Blackout Incident'

Last October, a fire broke out at a data center, causing what is known as the 'Kakao blackout' during which Kakao services were unavailable. A civic group filed a lawsuit against Kakao seeking damages but lost the case.

Employees are arriving at work in the lobby of Kakao Agit in Seongnam, Gyeonggi./Seongnam=Photo by Kang Jin-hyung aymsdream@

On the 22nd, Judge Lee Joo-heon of the Civil Division 32 at Seoul Southern District Court ruled to dismiss all claims made by the Seomin Minsaeng Countermeasure Committee and five citizens in their lawsuit against Kakao for damages.

The Seomin Committee, along with five citizens including taxi drivers and office workers, filed a claim on October 21st last year demanding compensation for damages caused by the 'Kakao blackout' incident on October 15th. They sought 1 million KRW each in consolation money, totaling 6 million KRW. At that time, a fire broke out at the SK C&C data center building in Pangyo, Seongnam City, where Kakao's servers were located, preventing citizens from using Kakao-related services.

At that time, Kakao formed the '1015 Damage Support Council,' which included external experts and civic groups, to discuss compensation and support measures. Kakao decided to provide differential compensation based on the scale of sales losses for small business owners and to distribute three types of emoticons to all users.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.